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Hail to "vintage" evrything!

JohnVF said:
This place depresses me sometimes. I feel like I'm hanging out in a bar full of 1000 grumpy-old-men from Saturday Night Live, that old Dana Carvey character. "When I was young, we didn't have 'video games'....we just sat around and watched a potato bake. And WE liked it."

There's fantastic stuff out there today, sometimes it's about opening your wallet more often than not it's about opening your mind.
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I'm only 40,I'm an IT tech...it's Saturday morning and i just want some good toast :)
 
Rodzilla said:
I'm only 40,I'm an IT tech...it's Saturday morning and i just want some good toast :)
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Yeah, my Oster is pretty terrible but its because I cheaped out when buying it. The allure of cheapness is certainly not foreign to AK, and I bought on price for a 'fake' vintage toaster. Hey, it looked cool! I should have just bought a nice one..they're out there but twice as expensive, which is probably no more out of line than what these vintage toasters were that y'all seem to be getting all hot n' buttered about.
 
The farmer I work for runs "vintage" combines, we joke about it quite a bit while we are working on them. When it comes to the actual running of them they hold their own, when they do break down, all machines break down, we can fix them. The most important factor, they are paid for. Imagine the frustration of having a tech come out to the field in the middle of harvest to trouble shoot a computer malfunction in a five hundred thousand dollar machine. I ride an old BMW, most repairs can be done with the tool kit under the seat, new BMWs won't even start if the side stand sensor fails.
I bought a solid oak desk, quarter sawn no less, for sixty bucks at the good will, real wood and cheaper than IKEA. It seems like the best stuff out there is the vintage stuff, and the price is right.

I agree toasters suck, don't even get me started on blenders.
 
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Hey, what about electric can openers?

If it had not been for the fire in my previous home's kitchen (2004) that destroyed a lot of my utensils I would still have one made by the Waring company.

That thing was built on the order of tank & opened a can with ease.

It was given to me & my ex-wife as a wedding gift back in 1976.

Rome
 
I think that a big stigma here is that if it didn't come from Goodwill, and you didn't pay $5 for it or get it as a gift, there is nothing else that will suffice.

Was there more "better" stuff 50 years ago? Yes, but it also cost a lot more. Most of the low cost/low quality items are sitting in a dump somewhere.

Look at an old house, like mine, built in 1944. Was it build well at the time? Yes. Are the materials at the end of life? Yes. Is there stuff that is much better quality to replace it with? Without a doubt! In 50 years when someone buys this house and looks at the materials that I used, are they going to replace it with something better that isn't manufactured yet?? OF COURSE!

People here need to understand that, although there are many things that were "better" 50 years ago, todays quality of life is superior in nearly every way because of the machines that we now buy.

I can understand if you can't afford the new quality items. So many here buy an older item that was originally TOTL for a very reduced price. Of course the old TOTL works better than the new BOTL that costs about the same.

But don't say old is better, because it isn't.

Sometimes we get cheaply made items to automate some more of our lives, they break down. Then we complain about it.

Take a step back, reflect a little, and be happy we live when we do, enjoy it!

PS. Part of the reason that new stuff costs more is because your paying for someones salary. Quality items take skilled labour. Skilled labour costs extra.

Buy products made locally when available (electronics are near impossible) and keep money in your economy.
 
hayseed said:
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I bought a solid oak desk, quarter sawn no less, for sixty bucks at the good will, real wood and cheaper than IKEA. It seems like the best stuff out there is the vintage stuff, and the price is right.

I agree toasters suck, don't even get me started on blenders.
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There are great new blenders out there. They're made by Vita-Mix, run forever and come with long warranty periods. They also cost several hundred dollars more than your typical box-store ones.

There are great toasters out there, too, made by Dualit. They're darned expensive, too, but worth it if you want a good toaster.

French cookware manufacturer Le Creuset makes wonderful, heavy baked-enamel cookware that lasts almost forever. It's expensive, too.

All three of these companies have been around for decades, and are making goods that are very similar in quality to the goods they made fifty years ago, with perhaps a few modifications (usually improvements). You can look for their old ones, or buy them new. I've done a bit of both: I rebuilt a dirty old commercial Dualit toaster to look and work like new, but bought my Vita-Mix brand new. I have bought both new and used Le Creuset cookware: I wouldn't normally buy used cookware, but this stuff can be cleaned to look 99 percent brand new, if you do things right, and buying used has saved me several hundred dollars.

Fans today are quieter and cheaper to run than the old ones used to be, thanks to computer-modeled fan-blade shapes and lightweight parts and efficient motors. BUT a decades-old fan needs only an easy clean-and-lube job to be good for decades more, while a modern fan will probably fail within 2-5 years and be irreparable. You can buy a better fan, but it will cost more, and still won't last as long as the old ones, which are practically indestructible.

I have two 25+ year-old dehumidifiers. They both run nearly year-round without complaint, and do a superb job. I had a newer one, but it quit after a couple of years. I have another newer one, and while it has umpteen bells-and-whistles and dries out the air even faster, it uses so much electricity that I can hardly afford to use it. The design is inherently LESS efficient, in spite of its "energy star" ratings, and it heats up the whole place noticeably. Give me the old ones, any day! One of my air-filters with the fancy electronic menus and surface-mount buttons let out the magic smoke yesterday. It had hardly been used much at all -- in terms of dollars per hour of use that I actually got from it, it was one of the worst buys I've ever made.

In general, I think some things have improved, while others have deteriorated in quality. In some cases, such as the cookware, the market has bifurcated, with good quality around at a premium, and cheap quality around for cheap prices. In other cases, there have been trade-offs: quieter and more efficient fans, that do not last as long, or iPods that can carry hundreds of songs in a pocket, but at lesser sound quality, or cars that get great mileage and last longer, but which look like boring blobs and stink like gas chambers.
 
I'm still using an electric can opener I got in 1975 and it works great, and has a knife sharpener built in. A lot of things are better now - e.g. computers vs. computers 10 years ago. LCD computer monitors vs. large, heavy CRT energy sucking monitors. The new appliances like freezers, stoves,dishwashers, etc take much less energy, but I do not think they have the quality of vintage appliances. Viking and Wolf ranges are rated at the very bottom for reliability by CR. Cars - of course they are much better now - the engines are basically blue printed, body panels fit better, they do not rust anywhere near as vintage. I still love all of my vintage stereo gear, I love my Marantz receivers but I also use new HT receivers with some of my vintage speakers.
 
rollei35guy said:
Dude! It's just a motor.

That said my better half has a manual one that removes the whole top, seam and all.
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I think you missed the joke, the motor being referred to was whoaru99's arm...:D

I have one of those seam opener ones, it's the cat's meow! Highly recommend it. Now that's a modern product that is superior to the old ones. :thmbsp:

You know, there were probably crappy products back then too, but they didn't survive. The ones we appreciate now were the expensive ones when they were new, because they were built well enough to last until 2010. :scratch2:
 
I am on both sides of the fence. I like my Remote Start on my Grand Prix. I also have Aladdin lamps in the house. When we bought the place 15 years ago I remodeled the kitchen. I wanted a good stove but all the new ones left me wanting.

I researched and went looking and found a circa 1985 Jenn-Air that has the modern look and some features but is not the current "Oven on a chip" I now have all the options and love it to death. It has a cool fluroscan display. I have got a few extra parts for it in case something goes wrong but so far so good. :thmbsp:
 
As far as stoves go, and anything new for that matter, if you want longevity, you need to pay for it. Buy industrial equipment, especially when it comes to the kitchen, or any major appliance for that matter.
 
Toaster: Hobart.

Problem solved. Open wallet. Smile.


I like old stuff. Not all of it is good. My house was built in 1918. It now sucks. I suppose I may suck when I approach 100 years old.


:)


Matt
 
jerrymrc said:
I am on both sides of the fence. I like my Remote Start on my Grand Prix. I also have Aladdin lamps in the house. When we bought the place 15 years ago I remodeled the kitchen. I wanted a good stove but all the new ones left me wanting.

I researched and went looking and found a circa 1985 Jenn-Air that has the modern look and some features but is not the current "Oven on a chip" I now have all the options and love it to death. It has a cool fluroscan display. I have got a few extra parts for it in case something goes wrong but so far so good. :thmbsp:
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I have Aladdin lamps too. Bought my first when I worked in a hardware store in the '70s. I also found a NOS Aladdin Blue Flame heater last year.

Our place is all electric and the heaters may come in handy should the power go out.
 
I think we are all sitting around the same fire. I agree that there are some very fine things made today, for me the problem is my only choices are the four hundred dollar blender that can turn golf balls into space dust, or the forty dollar blender that will cough up its guts chopping ice. I would love to have a vita-mix, I would love to have a Dyson, I would love to have a Fein, I would love to have a Vincent, but it's only going to happen if I find one at Good Will, it's really the only way I can afford top of the line stuff.
I'm not bitter about it, I have an excellent baler and a brand spankin' new blue tractor, wine in the cellar and a freezer full of lamb, life really is pretty good.
 
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